Lake Winnipeg The Railroads Cottaging Fishing Winnipeg Beach Victoria Beach Grand Beach Gimli Photo Album	Fishing became the main occupation of the lake's first European settlers, the Icelanders. Today fishing on Lake Winnipeg continues to be a major industry. It's the largest inland fishery in Canada worth about $ 20 million dollars per year. According to journalist Val Werier, Lake Winnipeg is an extremely productive lake. Because it's shallow, it gets the beneficent rays of the sun. "The production is unusual -- Last year 8 million pounds of pickerel alone from this lake. And the pickerel -- I think its one of the greatest delicacies around." Lena Halgren's family has fished the lake since the early 1940s. "I came to Victoria Beach in '42. We got married that year August. My husband was fishing and we built here in 45. We were looking for land to build a cottage at that time we got land for $1 per lot and we bought 4 lots. Just imagine eh, that land." "But there was nothing but bush when I first come. I was the loneliest person on earth no people around. Sometimes cattle come in the yard I was glad to see them." Lena's youngest son Glen and his father worked together for 20 years in the fishing trade. "I think my earliest memory was when I was probably 8 years old. I would go out with my dad fishing and he would and set a few nets. I remember being out in some really bad storms. There was times when I first started fishing with my dad we had a smaller boat. I remember there where times the waves would be coming and would washing over the boat. Fishing was such an enjoyable thing. You'd bring in fish, you'd sell it to the marketing board every week you'd get a cheque." But fishing is a hard life. Glen had to give it up when he developed rheumatoid arthritis but he's found a new career capitalizing on his love of the lake. He now publishes Cottager Magazine. "It's just a different type of feeling," he says of lakeside living. "Coming home and just -- I don't know -- I think opening up the windows and you'd wake up in the morning And you'd hear the waves splashing up against the rocks."
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